Synthesis and Characterization of Epoxy End-capped Polystyrene Oligomers

  • Mr Jian Zhang, WASM, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
  • Mrs Yao Zhang, WASM, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
  • Professor Anna Zheng, ECUST University, China
  • A/Professor Haipeng Wang, WASM, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
  • Mr Yuan Tian, WASM, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
  • Mrs Fei Wu, School of Applied Chemistry, Curtin University of Technology, Australia

    • The living poly(styryl)lithium precursor was formed by anionic polymerization with the protection of argon under ambient condition, where styrene, cyclohexane, THF and n-butyllithium were used as monomer, solvent, polar reagent and initiator respectively. Then epoxy end-capped polystyrene oligomer was prepared by termination reaction of the poly(styryl)lithium with epichlorohydrin (ECH) over anhydrous aluminum chloride (or silver nitrate) as additive. The oligomer was characterized by GPC, FT-IR, 1H-NMR and Hydrochloric acid-Dioxane Argentimetric method. The effects of aluminum chlorate and silver nitrate, termination temperature and time on the content of end epoxy group were also studied. The results show that the termination efficiency improved with the addition of aluminum chlorate and the decreasing of termination temperature. It is also found that the best termination temperature is 0 °C and the best termination time is 1 h.